ASSIGNMENTS: CHINA'S SILK ROAD

I traveled on the Chinese part of the Silk Road in June 2007, a journey from Xian in the east to Kashgar, in the west. A journey of about 3200 kilometers (about 2000 miles) that took 3 weeks by train, bus, plane, 4x4. The journey to describe the life along the Silk Road in today’s China.

The Silk Road got its name only in the 1870s by a German scholar but the trade-route, probably the greatest ever East-west trade route, was first traveled by ambassador Zhang Qian in the second century BC while on a mission from Emperor Wudi of the Han dynasty.

The early trade in Silk was done by great caravans of merchants and animals, traveling on some of the most inhospitable land on earth, including waterless deserts and mountain passes with snow.